Piano.



H. K. SANDELL.

PIANO.

APPLICATION FILED 0012,1911.

Patented June 4, 1912.

2 SHEETSSHEET 1.

I 6' I ll l Inventor:

COLUMBIA PLANOGRMH co., WASHINGTON, n. c.

UNITE STATES PATIENT @FFIQE.

HENRY K. SANDELL, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO llIiLLS NOVELTY COM- PANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

PIANO.

To all whom 2 2? may concern Be it known that I, HENRY K. SANDELL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Pianos, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide an improved construction of piano in the way of the arrangement of its strings relative to the sounding-board, to the end of rendering the tones more sonorous by augmenting the effect of their vibrations upon the sounding-board.

The invention is more particularly intended for automatically-played pianos used for accompanying purposes, especially pianos of comparatively short range, and more especially for accompanying a selfplaying violin, such at that of Letters Patent No. 855,021, granted me May 28, 1907, with the last improved form of which I have combined my present invention to cooperate therewith for playing them together by the same traveling music-sheet.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a broken view in front elevation showing the improved sounding-board and metal plate covering it with the piano strings arranged in accordance with my invention; Fig. 2 is a section on line AA, Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a section on line BB, Fig. 1.

The sounding-board 4, which need differ from other sounding-boards only in the feature of the bridge 5, hereinafter described, and which is provided with wooden ribs 6 at intervals across its back, as usual, is fastened in the ordinary manner at its upper and lower ends between the corresponding ends of a cast-metal plate 7 and the wooden head-block 8, in which work the pegs 9, and the wooden base-block 10. The plate 7, of the preferred shape shown to render it open and lighten it, and suitably ribbed for its reinforcement, is provided with a central opening 11 of the general V-shape illustrated. The bridge 5 projects from the face of the sounding-board through the plateopening 11 and corresponds to the shape of the latter, following, as a continuous or unbroken strip, the contour of its sides and apex, and being provided with sets of the usual pins 13 in proper relation for holding apart the piano-strings 12. The longer and Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed fictober 2, 1911.

Patented June 1, 1912.

Serial No. 652,281.

heavier, or bass, strings, of which two are shown in Fig. 1 for each tone, are stretched lengthwise across the central section of the opening 11, and the shorter and lighter strings, for higher tones, for each of which. three strings are shown, are stretched across the opening parallel with the heavier strings, at opposite sides of the series of the latter; and the preferred disposition of the strings is such as to arrange their chromatic sequence back and forth transversely across the central pair producing the lowest tone, meaning that if the last-named tone be A, the next pair to the right will be A sharp and the next to the left, B; and so on throughout the series of sets of the strings. Each string necessarily crosses the continuous bridge 5, the shape and position of which interposes it into the path of all the strings.

By the described arrangement, whereby the bass-strings vibrate throughout their length against the central portion of the sounding board and the shorter strings similarly vibrate against the soundingboard adjacent to its central portion, the sonorous quality of the tone of the instrument is materially improved. The continuous, or unbroken, construction of the bridge 5 is also an important feature of my im provement, since it tends to produce uniformity in the character of the tone of the instrument, which would otherwise be marred.

that I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. A musical stringed instrument having a sounding-board, a string-plate spaced from the sounding-board and provided with a central opening, a bridge projecting from the sounding-board through said opening, and strings stretched across the opening over said bridge, with the relatively-longer and heavier strings traversing the central portion of said opening and the relativelyshorter and lighter ones traversing the lateral portions thereof.

2. A. musical stringed instrument having a sounding-board, a string-plate spaced from the sounding-board and provided with a central opening, a bridge projecting from the sounding-board through said openin and strings stretched across the opening over said bridge, with the relatively-longer and heavier strings traversing the central portion of said opening and the relatively shorter and lighter ones traversing the lat eral portions thereof, the series of strings being relatively disposed to produce their chromatic sequence back and forth across the center of the series.

3. A musical stringed instrument having a sounding-board, a string-plate spaced from the sounding-board and provided With a central elongated opening Widest toward one end, a bridge projecting from the soundingboard through said opening adjacent to its edges and conforming to the contour thereof, and strings stretched across the opening over said bridge, with the relatively longer and heavier strings traversing the central portlon of said opening and the relatively shorter and lighter ones traversing the lateral portions thereof.

4:. A musical stringed instrument having a sounding-board, a string-plate spaced from the sounding-board and provided With an opening of general V-shape, a continuous bridge of the shape of said opening projecting therethrough from the sounding-board, and strings stretched across the opening over said bridge With the relatively larger and heavier strings traversing the central portion of said opening and the relatively shorter and lighter ones traversing the lateral portions thereof.

HENRY K. SANDELL. In presence of J. G. ANDERSON, R. A. SOHAEFER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

